SHOPLIFTING WIDOW GAOLED

NZ Truth, Issue 1031, 29 August 1925, Page 3

SHOPLIFTING WIDOW GAOLED

Pillow Case Receptacle Inside Tweed Coat

Thc career of certain articles of merchandise these clays seems to be a very precarious one. In the course from the factory to the purchaser, goods have to run the gauntlet of thieves and robbers, and even when they have by good fortune been able to find themselves displayed on the shelves or m the 'show cases of some modern "emporium," they are still confronted with grave danger.

This at least is the impression which must have been created m the minds of those whose business it is to attend the Magistrate's Courts of Auckland of recent weeks. In that time numerous people have appeared on charges of dishonesty, all 'of which have, as their objective, the thieving of other people's property. Waterside workers hava been sent to prison for broaching cargo on the wharves, shop assistants have been similarly dealt with for ap- • prop'riating the property of thsir employers, and would-be customers have found themselves m the toils of the law for having helped themselves to what did not belong to them. It may be the present rage for dress, or it may be some economic influence, but the fact remains that the trouble of shoplifting is undoubtedly on the increase. Chief Detective Cummings told S.M. Poynton m the Auckland Magistrate's

Court the other day that shop-lifting was on the increase and women were the principal offenders. He said that it was a matter which now extended to serious proportions from the point of view o£ the trades-people. It was also hard to detect. The police had discovered that some women worked m conjunction with others, some even with men m robbing the tradesman of his wares. One woman had the help of a shop-assistant. In another case, one woman engaged the attention of the man m charge while the

other woman was busy helping herself to whatever she could, lay hands on. The ,case before the Magistrate at the time was . that of a Coromandel widow, Sarah Davis Morgan, who appeared on ten charges of shop-lifting, involving articles to the value of over £S. When she first appeared *she denied ever having touched the goods, but she had even tried to put some of the articles found m her> possession into the pocket of a coat belonging to a young woman who happened to be occupying the same room as the accused. The Chief Detective said that the theft was a mean one, and he produced, a heavy double-breasted ! tweed coat, m the inside of which - was sewn a large pillow-case, open mouth at the top, making a handy receptacle which would "put any poacher's pouch to shame. Pie said, that though the doctor who had had the woman under observation could not pronounce her mentally de-

fective, reports from the Coromandel police showed that she was hardly normal. The S.M. said that something 1 would have to be done which would have the effect of putting a stop to the wholesale thieving going on m this way. Offences of the kind would have to be dealt with severely. There were three cases last week, he said, -and, inone of these, goods to the value of £100 had been taken. The widow was sentenced ,to two months' imprisonment.